In an effort to more directly compete with Apple's integrated hardware-software approach, Samsung is rumored to be interested in buying webOS from Hewlett-Packard.

Earlier this month, HP announced it plans to spin off its PC business, and will also scrap the webOS software that powered devices like the Palm Pre and TouchPad. Samsung was initially rumored to be a candidate to buy HP's PC business, but the company denied those reports.

However, a new report from DigiTimes on Monday claims that while Samsung is not interested in HP's PC business, it is allegedly considering a purchase of the webOS software originally developed by Palm. Both HP and Samsung declined to comment.

"The sources noted that the acquisition of HP's PC business, which has a rather low gross margin, may turn out to hurt Samsung's panel and DRAM businesses that have rather high gross margins, therefore HP's webOS may be the target that Samsung has the most interest in," the report said.

The potential move is seen as a way to counter Apple's marriage of software and hardware, found in both iOS devices like the iPhone, as well as the company's Mac lineup powered by OS X. But a purchase of webOS is also viewed as a way for Samsung to push back against Google.

Earlier this month, Google announced it will acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. The deal gives Google access to Motorola's extensive patent portfolio, but also puts the search giant into the hardware business, as Motorola is a significant manufacturer of Android-powered devices.

Samsung, too, makes devices powered by Android, and the company may see Google's purchase of Motorola as a threat. Because of that, earlier this month it was claimed that Samsung is looking to strengthen Bada, its own smartphone operating system, to differentiate its products.

HP acquired Palm, along with webOS, in 2010 for $1.2 billion. The company initially planned to add webOS to Windows PCs, but those ambitious plans were scrapped this month, when the company announced it will instead focus on higher margin software and services.

Based on Monday's rumor, Samsung could pick up where HP left off, powering not only its smartphones and tablets with webOS, but also using the software to augment and differentiate its Windows-based PC business.

It seems everyone wants to copy Apple's integrated approach. Apple's philosophy is called "Beautiful Software in a Beautiful Box." But i doubt any of the competitors would have beautiful software or box.

For the record H-P never stated they were scrapping webOS software, only webOS hardware, so the article as written is inaccurate.

They have always stated that they planned to continue supporting the OS. Whether they live up to this promise is another question of course, especially as H-P seem to be on a path to self-destruction right now.

Someone somewhere speculated that Apple may want to buy WebOS to squash it. Doubt it. Samsung's continued forage in the pad market is probable, and Google as a trusted friend compliant with . . . well, with honour an all that gushy stuff may be speculation, too?

Apple doesn't need the competition to keep a head of their game, it's all planned out, but chuckles are needed at the Apple pub on Friday nights, so long live WebOS and Samsung and Google and Microsoft.

What Steve really wants, now that he has proven his point and changed the world, is for companies to grow up and stop taking the lazy way out. There is that ding in the universe he wants to make.

When I find time to rewrite the laws of Physics, there'll Finally be some changes made round here!

I am not crazy! Three out of five court appointed psychiatrists said so.

I thought Bada was evolving nicely. I'd much rather see RiM buy WebOS so they can get a decent smartphone and tablet OS for a chance at a future.

Rim makes more sense for WebOS than Samsung.

1. They NEED an OS. The whole tablet that won't work without out phone, and new phones that still have an ancient approach to the web are embarrassing for (or because of?) a once "cutting edge" company with TWO (count 'em) CEO's...

Of course integrating that with their approach to corporate messaging, which was their whole business model, might not work at all. Unless they bring over the WebOS guy and have THREE CEO's. Yeah. That's the ticket......

2. WebOS would be a wedge and patent hedge for Samsung and probably not go anywhere under their tutelage. They've shown little ability to get promised software bits out for their own products, and WebOS is a whole 'nother animal. So it would just languish there like Amiga did as it got passed around.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blastdoor

It's just too late.

I tried to pick up a TouchPad for $99 - it did enough well enough to be useful for me - but got cancelled out by a company that oversold its inventory. Meanwhile, seeing the markups being applied on eBay, I checked and WebOS has neither a DropBox orr SugarSync client. It really is quite isolated.

However, those who scarfed up a bunch of TP's are doing quite well - doubling their money and more in every active auction. So there's still a faint hope, certainly a demand.

Lastly, though, HP still seems to have some kind of plans for WebOS as an enabling technology elsewhere in their business. Printers keep being referenced well after the hardware got the kibosh. Not sure what they're (still?) so excited about here....

I think QNX is a great OS. But I don't know that the OS is so much RIM's trouble, they just can't seem to execute anything very well right now. Hard to say if they can turn that around anytime soon, but they really haven't got too much of a window to keep screwing around like this.

The thing is, WebOS is actually a great OS, far better than Android in conception and execution. And Samsung, despite their complete lack of any moral sense, is a smart successful company that knows how to execute.

WebOS for Palm was a beyond last ditch effort when the clock had *already* struck midnight on them. WebOS for HP was a disaster because HP always f*cks things like that up. It has a long history of turning pearls into swine.

Well, I webOS does have a really nice email client! Seriously though, it makes no sense for RIM at all.

Quote:

I tried to pick up a TouchPad for $99 - it did enough well enough to be useful for me - but got cancelled out by a company that oversold its inventory. Meanwhile, seeing the markups being applied on eBay, I checked and WebOS has neither a DropBox orr SugarSync client. It really is quite isolated.

But it does has a client for box.net, which also gives you a free 50Gb online storage.

It seems everyone wants to copy Apple's integrated approach. Apple's philosophy is called "Beautiful Software in a Beautiful Box." But i doubt any of the competitors would have beautiful software or box.

The thing that the competition never seem to get is that Apples solutions are also, from the users point of view, "Simple Software in a Simple Box".

I don't mean to say Apple stuff isn't powerful, but from the user standpoint, it's always so much more intuitive to use. Whenever I've seen Android I've been amazed by how messy and over complicated everything looks. I'm sure underneath it's a very capable OS like iOS, but it misses on user friendliness.

WebOS seems to be the closest to the Apple model, at least from what I've seen of it, but I imagine were Samsung to buy it, they would end up adding more and more "features" and making it less and less user friendly.

All the old webos faithful have moved to WP7, as have most of their developers. WP7 is the most friendly to patching and tinkering, and the interface is most in tune with the webos way of doing things swiping, plus the people tile is similar to synergy (both people focused OS's basically etc).

I'm a bit biased cause I just want swipe up card view multitasking in WP7

I tried to pick up a TouchPad for $99 - it did enough well enough to be useful for me - but got cancelled out by a company that oversold its inventory. .

HP really messed up - big time.

They had no more than 500,000 Touchpads. We're now more than a week into the sale and they STILL haven't figured out who's getting one and who isn't. They promised order confirmations within 24 to 72 hours - more than 4 days ago. Their ordering site was a disaster - taking many hours and countless refreshes to get an order in. Customer service is a disaster. You call the number and the recorded message says "the average wait in the past 30 minutes was 1 minute" -- and then you wait on hold indefinitely (well over an hour and still waiting). Their online chat can't tell you anything that you can't get from checking the status online yourself - at least when the status site is working. Instead of trying to find out what the status of your order is, online chat simply tells you to call the 800 number. I have 4 units on order and STILL (8 days after the order) can't find out if I'm ever going to receive them or not.

Come on, HP. I know that 500,000 units is a lot, but Apple sold many times that number of iPhones on launch day (just about every year). While they had some problems, they were largely resolved in under a day. Plus, Apple is a consumer oriented company. You really want us to believe that you are a reliable Enterprise partner? When you can't even handle something as simple as a close-out sale?

Even if HP were not getting out of the PC business, I doubt if I'd be buying any more systems from them. If this is what they call customer service, I'll choose someone else.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

Bada is a replacement for Samsung's proprietary OS that is meant to run on the low end devices. Not on the overpowered devices that run Android.

The Samsung Wave familly has almost the same technical features as the Galaxy familly. So this is not means for "low end devices".

However, Samsung prices the Wave familly at a lower level. This is a business decision, not a technical limitation: people wouldn't want to invest money on higher model if they were "stuck" on a proprietary platform.

Yeah, the "walled garden" all the basement nerds and tech writers have been screaming about for years turns out to be the correct business model after all. So to compete you have to copy Apple's business model and call it competition.

I want Samsung gone because they refuse to compete. I want actual competition more than all the people who whine that Apple is trying to become a monopoly by suing everyone.

They're suing because no one else is actually innovating. They're copying line for line from Apple's designs, both hardware (list of hardware manufacturers here) and software (Android and any OEM UI overlays).

That's why I love Windows Phone 7 even though I abhor everything else Microsoft has ever done (though I do respect that they've done online gaming right. Way better than either Sony or Nintendo's solutions). Windows Phone 7 is completely different from iOS. They actually did something that wasn't a blatant photocopy of Apple's stuff.

The hardware? Looks like iPhone hardware, but Microsoft's not in charge of that.

But that's beside the point.

My original comment alluded to the fact that WebOS seems to be the herpes of smartphone software. Whoever has it eventually has to snip off the affected areas or risk being done in by it. It meant nothing more than that.

While it would be nice to see WebOS get a chance to mature, I don't think any company could make it work. Sure, it's a nice OS but it really needs a stable ecosystem to accompany it and provide developers encouragement to develop for it. No simple acquisition of the OS will guarantee that so buying it is a big risk (ask HP). In fact, the speed with which HP just threw up their hands and gave up could be considered a devastating blow to developer confidence in the platform. Sure Samsung could still sell truckloads of phones loaded with it due to carrier subsidies, but it wouldn't help their tablet marketshare at all and would probably kill it altogether.

Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face? - Jack D. Ripper

Samsung urged to dump Android. South Korean government wants local mobile OS

Samsung is coming under pressure to dump Android on its smartphones and tablets – from the South Korean government. The Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet maker, as well as fellow Korean electronics giant LG, was told by a deputy commerce minister said that "In the long term, we cannot go on like this by solely relying on Google."

They had no more than 500,000 Touchpads. We're now more than a week into the sale and they STILL haven't figured out who's getting one and who isn't. They promised order confirmations within 24 to 72 hours - more than 4 days ago. Their ordering site was a disaster - taking many hours and countless refreshes to get an order in. Customer service is a disaster. You call the number and the recorded message says "the average wait in the past 30 minutes was 1 minute" -- and then you wait on hold indefinitely (well over an hour and still waiting). Their online chat can't tell you anything that you can't get from checking the status online yourself - at least when the status site is working. Instead of trying to find out what the status of your order is, online chat simply tells you to call the 800 number. I have 4 units on order and STILL (8 days after the order) can't find out if I'm ever going to receive them or not.

Come on, HP. I know that 500,000 units is a lot, but Apple sold many times that number of iPhones on launch day (just about every year). While they had some problems, they were largely resolved in under a day. Plus, Apple is a consumer oriented company. You really want us to believe that you are a reliable Enterprise partner? When you can't even handle something as simple as a close-out sale?

Even if HP were not getting out of the PC business, I doubt if I'd be buying any more systems from them. If this is what they call customer service, I'll choose someone else.

Those that are currently engaged in an enterprise "relationship" with HP are fully aware of their bottom-tier status, and are reminded of it daily. Where else can it take more than five days to execute a chmod?

Currently, if you're developing a smartphone app and you want to cover "everyone" you need to develop for iOS and Android. The assumption is that Microsoft's offering will get significant market share. So now you've got to budget for a Windows version. If WebOS is someone else comes along, I think they're going to have a hard time getting major developers interested. Sure EA and some of the big guys will just suck it up and make the investment, but I don't think that you'll see that for core utility/business apps.

This is either cause a major shift away from custom apps (in favor of Web apps) and/or it means that the market won't support more than 2 or 3 OSes in the long run.

I want Samsung gone because they refuse to compete. I want actual competition more than all the people who whine that Apple is trying to become a monopoly by suing everyone.

They're suing because no one else is actually innovating. They're copying line for line from Apple's designs, both hardware (list of hardware manufacturers here) and software (Android and any OEM UI overlays).

That's why I love Windows Phone 7 even though I abhor everything else Microsoft has ever done (though I do respect that they've done online gaming right. Way better than either Sony or Nintendo's solutions). Windows Phone 7 is completely different from iOS. They actually did something that wasn't a blatant photocopy of Apple's stuff.

The hardware? Looks like iPhone hardware, but Microsoft's not in charge of that.

But that's beside the point.

My original comment alluded to the fact that WebOS seems to be the herpes of smartphone software. Whoever has it eventually has to snip off the affected areas or risk being done in by it. It meant nothing more than that.

lol that's hilarious. then how do you explain iOS5 being filled with Android features?

I think Apple fell asleep at the wheel and is now playing catchup. They may sell the most phones, but Android as a platform is kicking iOS's butt.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhikl

Apple doesn't need the competition to keep a head of their game, it's all planned out, but chuckles are needed at the Apple pub on Friday nights, so long live WebOS and Samsung and Google and Microsoft.

In retrospect, I seem to have stuck pins in WebOS, Samsung, Microsoft, Google, and Android OEMs all in the same post.

And I~ like it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rtm135

lol that's hilarious. then how do you explain iOS5 being filled with Android features?

Like…?

Quote:

Android as a platform is kicking iOS's butt.

In… what?

Customer satisfaction? NOPE. iOS is all over that.
Sales retention? NOPE. Returns out the wazoo.
Stability? NOPE.
Responsiveness of software? NOPE.
Sales? YEP. More Android devices have been sold than iOS devices. That's because there are dozens of Android OEMs (and some that report sales to resellers as "sales") and only one Apple.

If Samsung were to buy WebOS they'd probably do it for patents. They don't need another (failed) OS. Palm has been building PDAs for a long time so I presume they have a good portfolio of related patents that could be used to defend against Apple.

RIM was a better candidate and everyone involved in screwing up their bid for Palm should be fired. But that ship has sailed. They have placed their bet on QNX and any attempt to shift to yet another OS will completely ruin what little confidence anyone has in them anymore.

"My 8th grade math teacher once said: "You can't help it if you're dumb, you are born that way. But stupid is self inflicted."" -Hiro.